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AOL CEO Funds Anti-Gay Organization
by Barbara Dozetos
America Online founder and chairman Steve Case and his wife Jean donated more than $8 million last month to a school run by a church that sponsors anti-gay programs including the “ex-gay ministry” Worthy Creations.
Jean Case graduated from the Westminster Academy in 1978. The Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL, sits adjacent to the school. According to its Web site, it “exists primarily to educate the children of Coral Ridge families.”
Vermont realtor and longtime AOL subscriber Bill Desautels said he marched in several protests against the church when he lived in Ft. Lauderdale. “If, indeed, this proves to be true, I will stop using AOL,” he said.
“It’s a free country, they’ve got a right to donate to whomever they want,” said Wayne Besen, Human Rights Campaign communications director. “But we are very disappointed and alarmed by this.” AOL was one of the corporate sponsors for HRC’s annual dinner last month, and the online service has had a large group of GLBT subscribers since its earliest days.
Among its other ministries, the church lists Worthy Creations, which “provides a way out of the gay lifestyle for those who desire to change.” This program and the church’s Center for Reclaiming America, run by Janet Folger, launched the summer 1999 national ad campaign thanking Sen. Trent Lott and pro football player Reggie White for their public anti-gay stances.
Eighteen other right-wing organizations, including the Family Research Council and the Christian Coalition, joined in to fund the “Truth In Love” ex-gay ad campaign, featuring Anne Paulk, wife of John Paulk. He was removed last month from his position as chairman of the conversion ministry Exodus International after he was spotted in a gay bar in Washington, D.C.
Rev. James Kennedy, senior minister at Coral Ridge, hosts a church-sponsored television show regularly featuring guests claiming that the Bible calls for the death penalty for gays.
Besen grew up in the shadow of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale; its spire is visible from his parents’ home. “It looks like a big space ship of bigots landed there,” he said.
The message of this 9000-member church, he said, is worse than the Christian Coaliton or Jerry Falwell. “It is the ugliest, meanest, most virulent anti-gay organization ever,” Besen said.
“Hopefully [the Cases’] philosophy isn’t in line with Janet Folger and James Kennedy,” said Besen, “because if it is, there can be no doubt how they feel about our community.”
“In no way was the gift intended to send a message of intolerance,” Jean Case said in a statement released the day after the news of her gift broke on Gay.com. “Steve and I strongly oppose discrimination in any form.”
“I can assure you, their [Coral Ridge’s] actions have cost our organization hundreds of thousands of dollars to correct the record,” wrote HRC director Elizabeth Birch in a letter to Steve Case. “The views of Mr. Kennedy are not in synch with any of the corporate values we have seen at AOL,” she said, and asked Case to reconsider the donation.
The AOL chief has not commented publicly on the gift and spokespersons for the company are directing questions to the Case Foundation, the $135 million dollar philanthropy headed by Jean Chase.
The donation of more than $8 million to this “anti-gay organization disguised as a ministry,” said Besen, “is not a gift toward education, but one toward indoctrination.” The Cases he said, are “funding an assembly line of bigots.”
“Time to leave AOL and hook up with one of the local services,” said AOL subscriber Herb Franzen of Essex Junction. “It’s just the incentive I needed.”